By Canadian Press

Ylonen, Allen lead Canadiens over Flyers 5-2

Feb 24, 2023 | 8:27 PM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jesse Ylonen had a goal and an assist, Jake Allen made 24 saves and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 on Friday night.

Chris Tierney, David Savard, Josh Anderson and Nick Suzuki also scored for Montreal, which followed up Tuesday’s impressive win over New Jersey with another solid performance.

Owen Tippett and Ivan Provorov scored for Philadelphia, which has lost seven of nine since the All-Star break. Carter Hart made 26 saves.

The game pitted two of the Eastern Conference’s worst teams, but the Canadiens looked like Stanley Cup contenders against Philadelphia.

Montreal skated circles around the Flyers in a dominating first period that ended with the home team being booed off the ice. The rest of the game pretty much followed that pattern. 

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The Canadiens peppered Hart during a power play early in the first, with Philadelphia’s goalie making strong saves on slap shots from Mike Hoffman and Rafael Harvey-Pinard to keep the game scoreless. But Montreal kept up the pressure and netted a pair of goals in the final 2:10 of the period to go in front 2-0.

Savard opened the scoring by shooting under Hart’s right arm from close range after a pretty chip pass from Hoffman set him up perfectly. Tierney gave the Canadiens a two-goal lead with 5 seconds left in the first. Michael Pezzetta won a battle behind the net and fed the puck in front to a wide-open Pezzetta.

Suzuki scored the only goal of the second on a power play for his team-leading 45th point. Montreal got the man-advantage when the Flyers’ Wade Allison received an instigation minor and 10-minute misconduct in addition to a fighting major for his scrap with Alex Belzile. It took just 19 seconds for the Canadiens to take advantage when Suzuki’s pass to the front of the net deflected off defenceman Provorov’s stick and high over Hart.

Tippett gave the Flyers some life with a wrister that whizzed past Allen just 9 seconds into the third, but Ylonen answered with his first of the season on a deflection 6 1/2 minutes into the period.

The Canadiens pulled within two points of the Flyers, who have 56. Only Columbus, with 41 points, has less in the conference.

NOTES

Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Brandon Graham pounded the drum the home club uses to get the fans cheering at the start of the contest. … Philadelphia leading scorer Travis Konecny (upper body) missed his second straight game. … Montreal forwards Joel Armia and Kirby Dach both sat out with illnesses. … Philadelphia dropped to 11-15-3 at home, while Montreal improved to 11-15-3 on the road. … It was Ylonen’s first career multi-point game.

UP NEXT

Canadiens: Play the second of a back-to-back at Ottawa on Saturday night.

Flyers: Play the second of a back-to-back at New Jersey on Saturday night.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Aaron Bracy, The Associated Press